In the year 2042, when an unlicensed pregnancy is a felony, Willa’s little daughter Katy has been confiscated by the ruthless Bureau of Population Management. Unless Willa can rescue her she faces a life of stigma, toil and despair. With the help of some unlikely allies, Willa devises an audacious scheme to hide in plain sight and free Katy, but it will only work if she can find the courage to reinvent herself. When no one is what they seem, the truth can be a dangerous luxury. Come on Home Children, Book Two of Children in Hiding, is a dystopian thriller that tests whether love can outwit bureaucratic greed, and whether Willa can tread the treacherous path between reality and illusion.

In a future marked by high-tech surveillance, an unlicensed pregnancy is a felony. It can lead to loss of the child as well as devastating fines and imprisonment. Targeted by the corrupt population-control police, Sophie must make a painful decision. She can submit to the state’s harsh demands. Or she can go on the run, relying on the conductors of the revived Underground Railway. Confronted with deception and violence, she must learn to trust her instincts. If she hesitates she risks the loss of everything she values most. Fast-paced dystopian thriller, GET ON BOARD LITTLE CHILDREN takes the heroine from the drone-watched streets of Seattle to the dangerous Tijuana border, while exploring a future that may be closer than we imagine.

The Vara of Yima, the original Garden of Eden, sealed from the rest of the world and populated with the fittest of men and women. A secret paradise that 150 years ago became ravaged by smog that choked out the skies. All good stories have a hero. “The One” who arrives to save the realm from darkness and evil. But what if the wrong person takes their place by accident? Now the Vara exists in a permanent state of darkness and its people need a champion, a chosen one to save them from the smog that threatens to fill the realm and poison its inhabitants. That’s what they needed. They got Sammy Ellis instead. She isn’t important enough for her dad to stick around for, never mind saving a realm or junk like that. Her only responsibility was to help the chosen one open the gateway into the Vara, but not only has she entered the realm in their place, she’s also locked them out in the process. Stuck in a twilight land of giant mushrooms, pursued by dark forces and still in her pyjamas, being unimportant back in the real world is starting to seem way more attractive.

In a world where the water kills, he must decide who lives or dies – humanity, or humanity’s broken slaves. Don’t touch the water, or it will pull you under. Conserve food, because there’s no arable land. Use Sundered slaves gently, or they die too quickly to be worthwhile. With extinction on the horizon and a world lost to deadly flood, Harry searches for a cure: the Hope of Humanity, the mysterious artifact that gave humans control over the Sundered centuries ago. According to legend, the Hope can fix the planet. But the Hope holds more secrets than Harry knows. Powerful Sundered Ones willingly bow to him just to get near it. Ambitious enemies pursue him, sure that the Hope is a weapon. Friends turn their backs, afraid Harry will choose wrong. And Harry has a choice to make. The time for sharing the Earth is done. Either the Sundered survive and humanity ends, or humanity lives for a while, but the Sundered are wiped out. He never wanted this choice. He still has to make it. In his broken, flooded world, Hope comes with a price.

A thousand years ago the Darkness came–a time of violence and social collapse when technology ran rampant. But the vicars of the Temple of Light brought peace, ushering in an era of blessed simplicity. For ten centuries they kept the madness at bay with “temple magic,” eliminating the rush of progress that nearly caused the destruction of everything. Orah and Nathaniel, have grew up in a tiny village, longing for more from life but unwilling to challenge the status quo. When Orah is summoned for a “teaching”—the brutal coming-of-age ritual that binds the young to the Light—Nathaniel follows in a foolhardy attempt to save her.

One morning, the people of the North woke up and the people of the South were gone. Hawkeye wants to know why. Her curiosity won't let her refuse a journey to the Forbidden Cities, even though she's going into more danger than she can imagine.

The Admiral of the Democratic Assembly. His right-hand man on a search for redemption. The lone survivor of a terraformed planet. A Defiled rebel unplugged from the Feed. And a memory of a time long ago. Five lives witness change in a universe that forgot it was possible. In the distant future every species is given a single vote to coordinate its existence. Humans, who sit at the top of this Democratic Assembly, require constant planetary terraforming to accommodate their booming population, which now includes naturally occurring genetic duplicates for every living sequence. This is the way it has always been. But when the one-thousandth Alien pyramid is found on a distant planet, and the murder of the marines who discovered it is broadcast across the public Feed, it seems change has finally come. Some would do anything to promote it, while others would die to prevent it. No one is ready for the truth: that change may come at the destruction of everything, and the ancient realization that “we are not alone” is about to take a whole new meaning.

Aliens called ShaZha rule future Earth and struggle with capricious humanity. Zarah wants to prove humans can be civilized, but discovers a hidden people and must acknowledge her true status. Far into the future, the Earth is ruled by the ShaZha, a hyper-intelligent race of alien beings who are plagued by the violence and volatility of the human race. Supposedly intending to repair the broken societies and polluted planet, they have found the Human problem to be much more complex than they ever imagined. Zarah is a Prodigy, an obedient human, with a caring ShaZha master. Zarah wants to prove all her master’s hopes that humans can be civilized and responsible. When she is lost by her master and exposed to the other side of humanity, she must confront the possibility she might be not a valued citizen, but a pet.

This superbly written short story anthology showcases talented Awesome Indie authors from around the globe. Though from a variety of genres, the stories are all entertaining, contemporary and thought-provoking. Indulge your taste for good fiction with this short story anthology by authors with bold new voices. Though from diverse genres, the stories share a contemporary and contemplative feel that will linger long after the reader has read the last one. Awesome Allshorts showcases talented authors from around the globe, many whose novels have received multiple honors, including Awesome Indies approved status. Stories selected by Tahlia Newland, Dixiane Hallaj and Richard Bunning.